Milk-bottling machine.



Patented Dec. 12, 1911.

4 BHEBTHmEET' 1.

Wnuzssss A-r To RN Ms G. STRANDT. MILK BOTTLING MACHINE. APPLICATIONFILED APR. 3, 1909.

Patented Dec. 12, 1911.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

ATTORNEYS .G'. STRANDT; MILK BOTTLING MAcHmE. APPLIOATIQN FILED APR. 3,1909.

1,01 1,263 Patented Dec. 12, 1911;

M4 4 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

' m P r Patented Dec. 12, 1911.

4 SKEETSSHEET 4.

ArToRNEYs.

- 23d da GUSTAV STRANDED, 0F MILWAUKEE, WI SCONSIN.

MILK-BOTTLING MACHINE.

specification of ietters Patent. Application filed April 8, 1909. SerialNo. $87,736.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GUSTAV Srmnnna .citizen of the United States,residin 'at allowe and it pertains more especially to certain specificimprovements which have since been made by me not shown or disclosed insaid prior application.

The construction of the machine embodying by present improvements isexplained by reference to theaccompanying drawings in which V Figure 1is a front view. Fig. 2 is a plan view. Fig. 3 is a side view, part insection.

Fig. 4 is a top and Fig. 5 is an end view of a swinging bottlesupporting rack connected with said machine. Fig. 6 is a side view,

part in section, of'a bottle filling. nozzle. Fig. 7 is a top view ofthe device shown in Fig. 6. Fig. 8 is a front view, and Fig. 9 is a sideview of the paper disk retaining receptacle, which disks are used forclosing the mouths of the bottles as they are being filled.

Like parts are identified, by the same reference numerals throughout theseveral views.

The frame of the machine comprising the vertical standards 1 andtransversely arranged members 2, the milk tank 3, the ad-- justablebottle supporting table 4, the pedal 5 which is pivotally supported fromthe standards 1 by the shaft 6, the vertically moving frame 7, the meansfor communicating motion from the shaft 6 to the vertically moving frame7 including the pulley 8, chains 9, 9 and 9, and rollers-10, 10,. andthe swinging arm 11 which is 'adjustably connected at one end with thestationary part of the machine by the pivotal bolt 12 and adapted, asiitis swung in a circular course a partial revolution, around said'pivotalconnection 12, to remove the several bottles connected therewith frombeneath the filling nozzles to one side of the supporting table, are allconstructed and arganged of January, 1908, and since duly racemes Dec;12, new.

substantially as shown and described my previous application.

My present invention consists more especiall mthe several details ofconstruction hereinafter more fully set forth and pointed out in theclaims.

t The tank 3 having been supplied with milk, the same is discharged inthe bottles through the discharge nozzles '13. While the number ofbottles simultaneously filled may be increased or diminished, thepresent invention is limited to the mechanism for simultaneously fillingfour bottles only. 14: represents one of the bottles in POSltlOIl tO befilled. In operating the device, a bottle is placed upon each of thevertically moving plates 15 within the semicircular recesses 16 of thearm 11. When the several bottles are in place, they are simultaneouslyraised by a downward pressure upon the pedal 5, motion beingcommunicated from the pedal 5 to the bottles 14, through'the shaft 6,pulley supporting arms 6, 6, pulley 8, revolubly supported from saidarms on the pin 8, chain 9, the upper end of which is connected at afixed point to the frame by the pin 10', branch chains 9, 9, operatingover the pulleys 10, vertically moving frame 7, vertically movingstandards 17, spiral springs 18 operating in the sleeves 18, and bottlesupporting plates 15. The springs are interposed between the upper endsof the standards 17 and the lower sides of the plates 15, whereby ayielding movement will be given to the plates as they are forced upwardby the treadle. The object of this is to accommodate the movement of theseveral bottle supporting plates to bottles of different heights,whereby in case any one of the series of bottles being filled is alittle longer or higher than the others, the spring beneath such bottlewill yield sufficiently after the bottle has been brought into contactwith the nozzle to permit all other bottles in the series to be broughtin close contact with the other discharge nozzles, whereby the mouths ofall the bottles will be raised a given height and brought into closecontact with the several discharge nozzles regardless of their height.

The machine is .adapted to be adjusted for filling bottles of differentcapacities. For example, for ordinary purposes, the machine is made forfilling bottles containing half pints, pints and quarts and for this 3Othe supporting lugs 20 are brought into the tles and such parts areretained at the point of adjustment shown by the vertically movingsupporting lugs 20, 20, which are respectively adapted to engage in theapertures 21, 21, formed in the resilient bars or hangers 22. Thehangers 22 are rigidly connected at their upper ends to the verticalframe members 1 by the bolts 23 and extend down past the supportingmembers 20 and are provided with a plurality of apertures 21, 24 and 25,arranged in a vertical series one above another at such distances apartas correspond with the heights of the different bottles to be filled.\Vhen adjusting said vertically moving parts to a lower level, the lowerends of the spring hangers 22 are thrown outwardly and disengaged fromthe supporting lugs 20, when said vertically moving parts are moveddownwardly until lower apertures of said hanger, whereby the bottlesupporting plates are retained at the proper elevation for larger sizedbottles,

and when desirous to adjust the verticallymoving members, including saidbottle supporting plates for smaller bottles, said vertically movingparts are elevated, when the resilient hangers will be thrown out ofengagement with the lugs 20 automatically by contact of the curvedupward surface of the lugs therewith, whereby when raising said pedaland bottle supporting plates, said resilient hangers will be thrown outof engagement therewith by contact with such angular surface, and whenthe table and cooperating parts have been brought to the requiredelevation, said hangers 22 will be thrown back to their normal verticalposition by their own resiliency, whereby the table and bottlesupporting plates, together with the swinging arm are readily andquickly adjusted to conform to the heights of the various sizes of thebottles which are being filled.

The table'4 is pivotally supported at its rear edge from the horizontalplate 26, by the bolts 27 and it is adapted to be supported-at-its frontedge from the vertical standards 1 of the frame by the brace member 28,pin 29 and pivotal bolt 30, whereby when said machlne is not in use, thefront edge of the table 4 may be dropped to the vertical by disengagingthe lower ends of the brace member 28 from the pin 29.

tion around said vertical standard, and said rack is thus adapted to beadjusted nearer to or farther from the table 4, as-desired. The objectof the rack 31 is to support a bottle crate in close proximity to thetable of the machine to facilitate placing the bottles in and removingthem from the crate. To prevent the crate from being accidentallyturned. out of place, the lower side of the crate supporting sleeve 37is provided with a semicircular recess 38 and the sleeve 37 is revolublysupported on the pin 39, which pin is in turn supported from thestandard 1, whereby as the rack is brought to the desired place, thesleeve 37 moves down slightly when the pin 39 is brought into saidrecess 38 and thereby yieldingly retains said rack in place, as shown inFig. 1. Itwill beunderstood that as the sleeve 37 is turned a partialrevolution in a horizontal plane on said standard 1, as the rack isbeing moved, said sleeve will be caused to rise slightly as it passesover the pin 39, whereby the pin is brought out of the semicircularrecess 38, said sleeve being yieldingly retained in contact with saidpin by the gravity of the sleeve and rack. While Fig.

l'shows but one recess 38 for the reception of the pin 39, additionalrecesses may, if desired, be formed in the lower side of said. sleeve37, whereby said sleeve and rack may be retained at additional points ofadjustment.

The several milk discharge nozzles, an enlarged View of one of which isshown in Fig. 6, comprise the screw threaded collar 40, which issupported from the bottom of the milk tank 3 as shown in Fig. 1, anoutwardlv diverging collar 41, the semicircular bracket 42, vertical-sleeve 51 and annular collar 47', all of which parts are formedintegrally, a vertical air duct 43, is centrally supported in saidnozzle from the upper side of said bracket 42 by the annular flange 44,which annular flange 44 is formed integrally with the tubular member 46and rests. upon the upper end of the sleeve 47, which sleeve is formedintegrally with said bracket 42. The tubular member 46 has screwthreaded bearings 48 with the upper end of the air duct 43. Formedintegrally with the lower end of the air duct 43 is a downwardly andoutwardly annular diverging flange 49, the upm mas.

per side of which forms a seat for the an.- nular valve 50. The annularvalve 50 is slidably supported from, the exterior surface of the annularsleeve 51.

52 is an annular flange formed integrally with the valve. 50 and servesasa bearing for the spiral spring 53, which spring 53 is interposedbetween said' radial flange 52 and the annular shoulder 54 formed on'thelower side of the collar 40. The spiral spring .53 is compressed,preparatory tolbeing inserted between the bearings'52 and 54 and itsobject and function is to forcethe annular valve 50 down firmly againstthe upper surface of the collar 49, which forms a seat to said valve. 7

55 is an annular elastic cushion, which is supported on the exteriorsurface of the annular valve 50 and is adapted when the valve is placedin the neck of the" bottle 56, as shown in Fig. 6, to hermetically closethe Vmouth of the bottle, while the milk is being discharged therein.

It will be understood that when the bottle is placed beneath the nozzleand in contact with the elastic flange 55 and pressed upwardly, motionwill be communicated from said bottle, through the elastic cushion 55 tothe annular valve 50, whereby the lower end of said valve will be raisedfrom its seat, when the milk in the tank above the screw threaded collarwill flow from thence down and around the air duct 43-and out betweenthe valve and the valveoseat 49,

while the air which is displaced by the milk .screw threaded bearings48, by which the' duct 43 is adjustably connected to the lower end ofthe tubular member 46. It will be understood that by turning the tubularmem her 46 upwardly or downwardly in the threaded bearings ofthe duct43, said duct 43 will be raised or lowered, whereby the angular bearing59 formed on the upper side of the collar 49 is adjusted nearer to orfarther from the lower end of said sleeve 51, as may be required forthick and thin milk.

The operation of the nozzle is as follows: The several bottles 56 beingin placewith the mouth against the elastic flange 55, they are allsimultaneously raised by a downward pressure upon the pedal 5, ashereinbefore described, whereby the spring 53 will be compressed and theannular valve 50 will be raised from its seat, when the milk from thetank will be free to pass into the bottle until the bottle is filled,when by lowering the bottles, the valve 50 will be thrown to its a seatbefore the mouthgof 'lhe bottle is with drawn from the valve, -wherebythe valve will be closed and the milk will be entirely out ofibefore thebottle is withdrawn from the nozzle, and whereby the possibility of milkescaping over the mouth of the bottle is entirely overcome. As thebottles are filled with milk, the months are closed with disks of paperor other similar material, which, for convenience are stored in thetubular receptacle 60 in close proximity to the table, whereby saiddisks are conveniently reached In view of the fact that four bottles aresimultaneously filled, I have rovided a means for withdrawing four 'otthe disks at a time only and to accomplish this object, a disksupporting bracket 61 is adjustably supported beneath the lower end ofthe receptacle 60 at a distance corresponding with the thickness of thefour disks to be removed, as shown in Figs. 8 and .9. The disksupporting bracket 61 is adjustably supported from the receptacle 60 byand between the bracket 62, which is rigidly affixed to the side of thereceptacle and the head of the'screw 63, and the bracket 62 is supportedfrom the main frame of the machine by an arm 64, hand screw 65 andbracket 66, which bracket 66 is connected with the top of the standard 1by the bolt 67, as shown in Fig. 3. It will of course be understood thatin case a greater or less number of disks are required at a time, thebracket 61 will be adjusted higher or lower accordingly.

In the nozzles as heretofore constructed, no provision was made forraising the lower discharge member 49, whereby in case it should bebrought in contact with the top of the bottle, it was liable to becomebroken. By my present improvement, however, the member 49 is free tomove upward together with the air tube 43 and vertical member 46 aslight distance, together with the valve 50 resting thereon, whereby theliability of such parts becoming broken as heretofore is avoided. J

In view of the fact that milk under some conditions is liable ifadmitted into the bottles too rapidly, to foam and fill the bottlebefore a suflicient quantity has been supplied, .it becomes necessary to.so set the valve mechanism that the valves can only be opened a certainpre-determined distance, whereby the milk may be admitted faster orslower at any desired speed according to the quality or condition of thesame.

By milk bottling machines as heretofore constructed, the valves havebeen opened more or less widely according to the heights of the bottles,it follows that in case one bottle is a little higher than another, suchbottle, when in contact with the milk controlling valve, will raise suchvalve an additional height above the others, corresponding with theadditional height of such hottle. One of the primary objects of mydevice is therefore, to provide means for limiting and controllin milkcontrolling va ves, so that they will all open a certain pre-determineddistance. Also to provide means for changing the valve mechanism so thatthe movement of the valves may be increased or diminished as the variousconditions of the milk may require.

'By'. referring to Fig. 6, it will be seen that the movement of thetubular valve 50 is limited to the distance between the annular collar49 and the shoulder 54, and that such valve can-be raised a slightdistance only before its upper end is brought in contact with theannular shoulder 54. It therefore follows that in case a bottle slightlytaller than the normal, is being filled, the valve 50 will be firstraised only untilit contacts withthe shoulder 54, whereby the furthermovement of the bottle is stopped, when the bottle supporting spring 18will yield under the action of the t-readle until the latter is broughtto rest, whereby all valves will be opened the same distance onlyregardless of the height of the bottles which are being filled. When,however, the condition. of the milk is such that it becomes desirable tochange the movement of the valve 50 so as to open more or less widely,this important object is accomplished by raising or lowering the annularcollar 49. For example, to open the valve more widely, the tubularmember 43 is turned down in the threaded bearing 48, whereby the valve50,

when open, will be raised a greater distance from the collar 49 and thevalve thereby more widely opened, while by a reverse movement of themember 43, the movement of the valve 50 will be diminished. Thus it isobvious that by turning the member 43 upward or downward upon thethreaded member 48, the valve 50 may be adjusted to open anypro-determined distance to correspond with the condition of the milkwhich is bein bottled.

Havlng thus described my invention what I claim as new, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is

.1. In a machine of the described class, the combination of a milk tank,a milk duct suspended from said tank, an air duct suspended from saidmilk duct, an annular collar forming a valve seat connected with saidair duct, a tubular valve slidably supported upon said milk duct andadapted to closeagainst the upper-side of said annular collar, anannular elastic cushion carried by said tubular valve, means foryieldingly the movement of the supporting said tubular valve and airduct from said milk duct, and means for adjust,

ably suspending the annular collar which forms the seat of saidtubularyalve at a greater or less distance from the lower end of saidmilk duct.

2. Ina machine for bottling milk, a milk duct,la tubular valve slidably'supported on said duct, in combination 'Wltl'l an air outlet ductcomprising two separable members adjustably connected together, and anannular collar connected with the lower end of said air duct forming aseat for said tubular valve.

3. In a machine of the described class, the combination with a pluralityof milk ducts suspended at their upper ends from a milk tank, of a tablelocated beneath said ducts, a plurality of bottle supporting platesmovably supported in the plane 'of said table,

foot actuated means for raising said bottle adjustment correspondingwith the height.

ofthe-bottles which are. being filled, substantially as set forth.

4. The combination with the frame of a bottle supporting machine of thedescribed class, of a crate supporting rack revolubly supported from oneof the posts of said frame, means for retaining said rack at the desiredpoint relatively to the table of said machine, substantially. asspecified.

5. The combination with the frame of a 7 bottle filling machine, of atubular receptacle for holding the covers with which the bottles areclosed as they are being filled in close proximity to the fillingnozzles of the machine, and a vertically adjustable bracket connectedwith the sides of said receptacle for supporting one or more covers atatime below the lower end of said receptacle, preparatory to beingremoved,}substantially as and for the purpose specified.

In testimony whereof I .aiiix my signature in the presence of twowitnesses.

' GUSTAV STBANDT. Witnesses:

(Ms. B. E-RWIN,

O. R. ERWIN.

